Fair worker in critical condition after stabbing

Earl Madden was in serious condition Saturday night at University Medical Center, a hospital spokesman said.

A 23-year-old woman told police she stabbed Madden to protect herself. A detective questioned the woman, and she was released without being charged.

Police were called to the Sunset Motel, 2305 Clovis Road, about 10:35 a.m. Saturday. The manager told police that a woman ran into the office and said she stabbed a man.

Officers found Madden standing in a motel room and holding a blood-soaked towel to his side. He walked to an ambulance, police spokesman Bill Morgan said.

Madden had cuts to his hand and wrist and puncture wounds to his abdomen and back. Because of a severed artery, doctors performed emergency surgery, according to police reports.

The woman waited for police in the manager's office. She told officers that she stayed in a friend's motel room Friday night because she couldn't find a ride home. The friend and Madden are working the Panhandle-South Plains Fair.

On Saturday morning, the woman's friend left for work. The woman said that as she tried calling friends for a ride home, she was attacked.

The woman told police that a man forced her onto a bed and tried to rape her. During the struggle, the woman grabbed a pocket knife and stabbed her attacker, she said.

The woman tried to flee the room, but the man grabbed her by the wrist and hair, she said. She eventually broke free, a police report said, dropping the knife as she ran out of the room.

Police did not locate the pocket knife, a report said.

The case remains under investigation, police said Saturday,

Elizabeth Langton can be contacted at 766-8795 or blangton@lubbockonline.com